Portland Exposé - NOT AVAILABLE

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Brief Synopsis

Woodland Tavern owner George Madison resides in a house nearby his modest business with his wife Clara and their two children, seventeen-year-old Ruth and young Jimmy in Portland, Oregon. Under pressure from salesmen Spud Lennox, George installs pinball machines at the tavern. Although the city is known for its safety, a violent crime syndicate with ties to big-city bosses has moved into town to start a gang war with rival pinball and gambling operators. Having beaten up the former crime boss' lackey, syndicate thugs Larry and Joe report to their boss, Phillip Jacman, the names of businesses containing the pinball machines. After Jacman orders them to pressure George to put more pin ball machines in his tavern, the syndicate pickets his establishment until Larry and Joe threaten to throw acid in Ruth's eyes. He then agrees to run the business under Jacman's direction and split the profits fifty-fifty. A short while later, the tavern is crowded with business each night thanks to the machines, but Clara does not approve of the gambling and begs George not to let the hoodlums ruin their business or their lives. To rid his business of gang involvement, George arranges a police raid at the tavern. However, the police arrive early and find nothing wrong in their routine check. Desperate, George goes to Portland's former crime boss, who explains that the new syndicate, once established, will expand their business to drug trafficking and prostitution. Meanwhile, outside the Madison house, when Ruth refuses to go to a club or into the woods alone with boyfriend Benny, the frustrated young man forces her to kiss him. Ruth runs from the car, bumping into Joe, who tries to rape her. Alerted by Ruth's screams, George punches Joe and in the ensuing struggle takes his gun and prepares to shoot the rapist, but Larry stops him. Ruth has run to the house, where Clara comforts her and then demands to George that the family move away. George orders her to take the children to her mother's and decides to remain behind and uncover the criminal ring. Meanwhile, Jacman, fearing that Joe will talk, orders Larry to kill Joe. Within a few days, as Clara and the children prepare to leave, Benny visits. Ruth thanks him for his apologetic letter and promises to return to town for the fraternity dance in a few weeks. Learning that union labor leader Alfred Grey is organizing an investigation into the ring, George meets with him and reporters Speed Bromley and Ted Carl, who place a wire on George to record evidence to use against the gang in a grand jury hearing. After Chapman tests George by sending him on a narcotics pick-up, George is accepted into the syndicate and assigned to make collections. After he delivers the taped conversations back to Grey and the others, George receives numerous warnings from them about the dangerous nature of the job, but George is determined to collect enough evidence to destroy the whole syndicate. One night, when Clara calls George to warn him that Ruth is coming to the house to attend a party, George hangs up on her before she can finish. Worried about her husband and daughter, Clara returns to Portland immediately. That night, George attends a party for Mrs. Stoneway, who has just been flown in to run a high-end escort service. Meanwhile, prostitute Iris, having felt the wire on George while dancing with him, informs Chapman of the surveillance. Chapman sends his men to search for the tapes at George's house, where they find Ruth and kidnap her. George is then abducted and taken to the warehouse headquarters. Meanwhile, Grey and the others play the tapes for a large group of union labor men who decide to raid the warehouse that night. Back at the warehouse, George refuses to give Chapman information despite repeated beatings. However, when the thugs bring Ruth before him and threaten to blind her with acid, George tells them that he has buried the tapes. As the thugs untie him, George runs with Ruth into the darkened warehouse and hides. The unionists arrive just in time to fight the thugs, enabling Ruth and George to return home to safety, with the promise of the city's peace restored.